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The bright-yellow Jordan Formula 1 racer slingshots around a tight right-hander and heads up the front straight of the storied Hungaroring, 2.74 miles of technically demanding racetrack nestled in the rolling Hungarian countryside. I blow past 150, 160, 170 mph, just like that. Just like on the PlayStation. Except this time the gearbox clunk-bangs horribly each time I upshift, the engine comes on like a two-stroke motorcycle past 9000 rpm, and the vibration is so intense my vision blurs. This time, it’s me in the driver’s seat. For real.

Up ahead and out of focus is Turn 1-a tight right with a dash of decreasing radius thrown in just to make things interesting. I’ve driven a lot of fast cars over the years-violent eight-second drag cars, muscle-bound tuner cars that easily zoomed past 220 mph-so I have a good idea of what ought to happen next: Don’t brake too early and look like a rank amateur, but don’t wait so long they’ll be picking the bits out of the cheap seats. I pick a point on the track that seems respectable for a million-dollar winged projectile traveling 172 mph and mash the brake pedal.

The Jordan halts like a junkyard dog at full stride reaching the end of his chain. Just like that. The apex I was aiming for is still up ahead, and I actually have to accelerate to it. I’ve just learned the lesson every F1 rookie learns, no matter how much other racing experience he’s had: The brakes on these things are unbelievable. Michael Andretti wasn’t making it up.

But here’s what’s humbling: A few weeks prior, during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher was still hard on the gas at the very point where I was hard on the brakes. And his car was traveling a good 20 mph faster than my detuned, four-year-old Jordan. He probably braked 30 meters later. At 190 mph, that means he waited barely four tenths of a second longer before stomping on the brake pedal. It’s not much. But it’s the difference between a fast driver and a Formula 1 world champion.

And here’s the other astounding thing: Although peak deceleration can reach 4.2 g (a good road car, something like a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano or the new 911 GT3, will hit 1.1 g in a panic stop), F1 brakes could be better. However, FIA rules dictate that spec-sized disc brakes be used to keep competition fair. Measuring just 10.9 inches in diameter, the carbon/carbon brakes are nearly five inches smaller than the 15.7-inch CCM rotors fitted to the Ferrari 599. The F1 calipers also are regulated to a six-piston design made of a specific type of forged alloy to keep things equal.

There’s much debate on rotor cooling vane design, pad material, and cooling-duct layout, but the greatest variable in F1 braking hinges on something hardly any road car encounters-aerodynamic downforce. Peter Wright, author of “Formula 1 Technology,” notes: “When a Formula 1 driver lifts his foot off the throttle pedal at 300 kph [186 mph], which is the speed achieved on most short straights, the car will slow at more than 1 g due solely to the aerodynamic drag.” A Formula 1 car is clamped so hard to the racetrack by aerodynamic downforce at speeds above 200 mph, it could theoretically be driven on the ceiling. Yes, upside down. But I have no idea just how much downforce is helping me. My only goal is to not crash the car.

As I power through Turn 1, I suddenly realize the braking system is the most powerful component in an F1 car. While F1 horsepower is fairly consistent (slight power variances due to altitude and weather conditions), braking consistency changes constantly. Track temperature, tire performance, changing fuel load, rotor/pad heat buildup-not to mention rain or poor conditions-all conspire to foil brake balance and overall performance. Master the brakes, and you’ll win races.

By now, the tires are up to temperature. I bounce between corner apexes like a pinball in an arcade game, progressively building speed. Steering effort is surprisingly heavy, and there’s no body lean; the car just turns. Ahead are the tricky Turns 6 and 7 that require hard braking and quick turn-in to best set the chassis for a proper high-speed run skipping off Turn 8. I dynamite the brake pedal at what seems the last possible second going into 6 only to find that I’ve done it again-I’ve stopped short.

Turn 12 looms. I’ve done a decent job of keeping up corner speed, and I’m screaming along at over 160 mph when I remember what the instructor repeatedly mentioned: Turn 12 is where almost every student crash has occurred. Too much corner entry speed mixed with too aggressive throttle application (oversteer happens like flicking a light switch) equals a large repair bill. I haven’t brought my checkbook, so I’m hard on the brakes entering 12. Too early. Again.

I have four laps in the Jordan, and each time around I go deeper before braking and add power sooner after apex. Before long, I’m feeling like Schumacher. Except my best lap time is about 40 seconds slower than his qualifying pace. Even the hapless Sakon Yamamoto, the Super-Aguri driver who started dead last on the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix, was 34 seconds faster than me. I won’t ever laugh at him again.

I could blame the fact “my” Jordan is a 2002 car, with a detuned engine and rock-hard tires, and it’s about as competitive as Fred Flintstone’s jalopy in today’s F1 terms. But I know I never got the Brembo CCM rotors on the Jordan anywhere near their prime operating temperature of 1200 degrees. I know the real difference between the F1 aces and the rest of us isn’t how well they handle the power, but how good they are on the brakes. n

Go to motortrend.com for photos and info on the Formula 1 Driving Experience and to find out how to register to win an expenses-paid trip to the Formula 1 Driving Experience, a Baer Claw 6S brake system-and more.

BRAKING POINTS

0.3 seconds needed for F1 brakes to heat up to their optimum performance1200 Fahrenheit degrees of carbon rotors and pads at peak operating temp1993 the year ABS and power brakes were banned in F14 seconds needed to accelerate from 0 to 125 mph in the Jordan F1100 yards needed to brake from 210 mph to 50 mph520 kilograms of Jordan F1 without driver (about 1145 pounds)600 horsepower of detuned Euro Speed F1 cars750 horsepower of typical F1 car4.2 peak g force achieved under braking2.9 weight in pounds of a carbon rotor (minus center “hat”) on an F1 car25 density percentage of a carbon F1 rotor over a cast-iron rotor 500 dollars for brake pads for each F1 caliper3885 Euros paid to drive Euro Speed’s Jordan F1

YOUR TURN

These days, if your Visa card has enough room, you can ride in a Russian MiG, float weightless in a 727 “vomit comet,” or buy a ride into outer space. And now you can drive a real F1 car. Denmark-based Euro Speed offers its F1 Driving Experience in Sweden and Hungary with a choice of ex-F1 rides including a Jordan and Jaguar. Other than money, nothing is required from the driver, as the car, crew, tires, fuel, driving suit, meals, and even exotic umbrella-holding F1 pit ladies are provided.

THEM’S THE BRAKES

Two days before making my F1 debut, I’m sitting in a sterile white room in Denmark wearing a sterile white lab coat as Roulunds brake engineers explain how subtle differences in material mixtures affect braking performance.

Roulunds is the world’s largest manufacturer of brake rotors and one of the larger producers of performance brake pads, and my day’s task is to combine ingredients carefully to form a performance brake pad that’s not too noisy, too dusty, or too expensive. That’s exactly what Baer Racing, the brake company that’s accompanied me to Europe for the F1 Driving Experience, has asked of Roulunds in designing its new “Sport-Touring” pad.

I add a scoop of barium sulfate, a dash of copper wool, a pinch of aramid fibers (not too much as aramids are expensive), some molybdenum sulfide, and a heaping helping of carbon. My brake-pad concoction is mixed in an overgrown food processor and then hot-pressed into small pads before undergoing repeated rounds of dyno testing. The pads look normal, but will they actually perform well?